<p>Most reconfigurable metamaterials that incorporate shape memory polymers exhibit inherent drawbacks, including complex chemical tuning, laborious thermomechanical programming, a restricted number of temporary shapes, imprecise shape locking, and slow response speed during recovery. To address these challenges, two shape memory kirigami metamaterials, one with wavy slits and the other featuring rotating polygons, have been recently introduced, yet their geometric tunability and scalability have not been addressed. This work examines the role of kirigami motifs, geometric gradients, and size effects to achieve simplified, robust, and rate-adjustable multi-shape memory responses. The governing factors for their multi-shape memory stem not only from the contrasting temperature-dependent elastic moduli of the bimaterial constituents but also from their tailored multistable building blocks with graded geometry and scaled size, enabling distinct stability transition temperatures and response rates. Theoretical models, numerical simulations, and thermomechanical experiments are employed to quantify the advantages of the proposed geometric strategies here investigated, specifically in terms of precise shape locking through multistability, reprogrammable multi-shape memory, large and controllable shape transformations, and swift recovery via snapping instabilities. Our method offers remarkable versatility, making it suitable for a wide range of geometric patterns, and adaptable to alternative pairs of materials and external stimuli such as light, humidity, and solutes. These characteristics enable diverse multifunctional applications in areas such as biomedical devices, autonomous systems, and adaptive aerospace structures.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>